Girls In Tech

I was recently introduced to the non-profit organization, CARE, by a friend CEO of WITI, David Leighton. After reading through the organization’s site and learning more about their upcoming Global Action Forum, I was inspired to write a blog entry and promote such an amazing movement.  As citizens of the world, it is our responsibility to help create solutions to end poverty in developing countries. With the technology and innovation that surrounds our daily lives, there is no reason why we can’t continue to create platforms to get resources to those who need it the most. Thanks to RoomtoRead, Kiva, Samasource, Extraordinaries for serving as great examples for this social entrepreneurship movement.

This movement is underway to inspire people across the United States to take action against global poverty. On Sunday, September 13, at the Power to the Peaceful Global Action Forum & Celebration in San Francisco, you can learn from local and international social change advocates about how you can make substantive difference on behalf of the world’s poor.

Founded by singer, activist, and CARE Ambassador Michael Franti, Power to the Peaceful is an organization dedicated to the promotion of cultural coexistence, nonviolence and environmental sustainability through the arts and music. Cohosted by Power to the Peaceful and CARE, the Global Action Forum & Celebration will feature representatives from CARE, Back to Earth, the Office of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Potentia Foundation, Room to Read, Spark, UC Berkeley, Vitamin Angels, and others in conversation about critical issues including global climate change, girls’ empowerment, and hunger and food security. Each session will examine challenges and solutions, and participants will leave with tangible strategies to affect change at home and around the world. Special guests include artists, dancers and musicians.

The Forum will close with a reception and celebration featuring an acoustic concert by Michael Franti and friends, a presentation of the Stay Human award to a celebrated humanitarian, and much more.

To purchase tickets, please click here.

Tags: CARE, End Poverty, Extraordinaries, girls in tech, Global Action Forum, Kiva, Room to Read, Samasource, women in tech
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Last Saturday I attended the Craigslist Foundation Bootcamp in Berkeley, California. I honestly didn’t know what to expect, however, was pleasantly surprised with the massive turnout and the caliber of talent and knowledge that was circulating throughout the UC Berkeley campus.

Thousands of passionate people gathered to translate ideas into reality and meet and greet with some of the innovators in the space. The theme was less about the non-profit sector and being philanthropic and more about how to create sustainable, automated change through technology, and even more specifically internet tools and web resources.

My favorite panel was on Social Entrepreneurship presented by Jonathan Greenblatt from the Anderson School and Nora Silver from Haas School of Business. This session provided case studies and information behind brands integrating social good themes within their products appealing to a certain segment of the consumer population.

Interface, Ethos Water, and TOMS, achieve widespread brand recognition and record sales while remaining true to their original principles. The session also integrated a hands-on workshop that enabled us to connect with our neighbors to discuss what social enterprise means to us. My neighbor and I decided that it is the intersection between passion and execution. You can’t have one without the other to succeed in this space.

Another highlight was learning more about the Extraordinaries, which proposes to deliver skills-based volunteer tasks to people whenever and wherever they are available by mobile phone. Essentially it’s crowdsourcing on steroids.

Over 80% of the adult U.S. population carries a mobile phone in his or her pocket and the higher-end of these diminuative devices, so called “smartphones,” are as capable as any laptop computer. Nearly anything that can be done on a personal computer can be done on a smartphone. The Extraordinaries dramatically reduce the barriers to giving back by enabling people to volunteer on-the-spot and on-demand.

I left the Bootcamp inspired and even more amped about what technology can do to help the world around us and those in need.

*photos courtesy of the Craigslist Foundation

Tags: Adriana Gascoigne, Berkeley, Craigslist Foundation, Craigslist Foundation Bootcamp, Extraordinaries, girls in tech, Non-profit, Philanthropy, Social Good, UC Berkeley
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